Hi

How many epidemiologists does it take to change a lightbulb?

“We’ve found 12,000 switches hidden around the house. Some of them turn this lightbulb on, some of them don’t; some of them only work sometimes; and some of them work sometimes, but twenty years after you flick them. Some of the switches only work, sometimes, twenty years later, if one of the other switches is flicked too (and at the right time). In any case the wiring’s rusty, everything’s completely different in the house next door, and by the way there are lots of people selling spare bulbs who tell lies about houses, switches, and fingers.”

Comments(3)

Dale Saran

Jennifer Crichton

Ben Gallarda

March 30, 2018

This is great. It may explain in part a perspective recently published on MedPage Today about doctors who say they don’t read medical journals any more – https://www.medpagetoday.com/blogs/revolutionandrevelation/72029. With this much variability in the data collection, underlying trends, not to mention conflicts of interest in interpreting the already messy results, it’s no wonder that conflicting studies come out so frequently.

One concern I have is that if doctors stop reading and interpreting the medical literature, what will be the sources of the information updates they need for their practice? And will these sources be free of bias or influence?